This invention relates to the field of remote data access and, more particularly, to techniques for auto-destruction of data available on a remote device that has been compromised and is subject to be used by a user without authorization.
Data accessibility and consistency are frequently significant concerns for computer users. When a roaming user who has traveled to a remote location needs to review or manipulate data such as e-mails or documents, the roaming user must either carry the data to the remote location or access a workstation remotely. Because maintaining a true copy of a database containing the necessary data can be a cumbersome process, system designers have developed various techniques for connecting a remote device across a computer network to a server storing the data.
Millions of people, including employees of companies and organizations, use remote access technology for communication of data in the performance of their jobs. Companies and organizations are often under pressure for finding ways to rapidly and cost-effectively connect mobile employees to key organizational information utilizing existing and often disparate communications platforms and devices. Resolving the issues of access, synchronization, and security regarding remote access technology may be crucial to these organizations.
The use of remote access technology for communication of data may be one of the factors leading to the increasing importance of synchronization technology. When copies of the same data resides in more than one place, as the value of a copy of this data at one of these places is changed, the value of the copy of the same data at other locations must be updated to reflect the most recent change. Synchronization process refers to a process of updating data values to reflect the most recent changes' in the value. For example, a data value may be modified by the remote user by input of a new value to the remote device. By using the process of synchronization the value of copies of the same data at the server location is modified to reflect the change at the remote device. Data values may also be changed at the server location. In that case, the process of synchronization is needed to modify the values of the corresponding copies of data at the remote device in order to reflect the change at the server location. In short, the synchronization process may be used to update old values of data to become equal to the new values.
Synchronization of email over the Internet and generic synchronization of other workplace data such as files, contacts, and calendars is handled with appropriate applications. As users rely on multiple intelligent devices, that may be located at different places, to communicate and organize their key data, they need to synchronize the data collected at or communicated from different places to make sure that they have access to the most up to date version of data. Frequently, facilitating access and updating the remote user's data through synchronization allows the remote device to be in possession of the most up-to-date data available at the server housing the database. Synchronization also allows transmission of any changes to the data at the remote site back to the server. As such, the user in control of a remote device that is in communication with the central repository for the data at the server may cause modification of the data available on the server.
Because through synchronization changes to data by a remote user may cause changes to the data at the central repository, unauthorized change in the data at the remote location endangers the data at the central repository. In some example scenarios, the remote device may be lost or stolen or the user in control of the device may lose authorized status. In any scenario where the remote device falls in unauthorized hands, both the data on the remote device and the data at the server are in danger of being used without authorization, falsely modified, or deleted. Any of these events may at the least cause delay and loss of business and at the most prove catastrophic to the viability or the business of the organization. While transmissive encryption technologies may be used to ensure privacy of data in transit; transmissive encryption is usually irrelevant to the security measures that are needed in the case that the remote device itself is compromised or the remote user loses authorized status.